First recorded Rattle Rite in Berlin?
Mon, Apr 22 2013, 11:57PM
I have noticed in a few articles that Simon Rattle's new recording of Stravinsky's 'Le sacre du Printemps' is referred to as his first recording of this work with the Berliner Philharmoniker. This includes AJ G's new gramophone article:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/focus/session-report-the-rite-of-sp...
He refers to this being Rattle's first recording with this orchestra as a surprise. It would be indeed, as he previously recorded it with the Berliner Philharmoniker as part of the soundtrack to the wonderful 2009 movie 'Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky.' The album refers to this as a 2003 recording, so around the time that Rattle took up the post as principal conductor. Other (slightly more tenuous) recordings as mentioned in the article include Rhythm Is It and the Digital Concert Hall broadcast, which forms at least partly some of the new release also.
My main reason for pointing this out is that the 2003 recording has been almost largely but not completely ignored by reviewers (thank you MusicWeb). I think it is one of the more unusual Rattle performances (it is very brutal in character), and informative to compare to his current view of the work. I would be very keen to hear others' views of the 2003 recording, in particular the Gramophone critics (perhaps a topic for a Collection article in the near future?).
That time when Rattle stopped Rite after a cell phone rang was interesting since, in my opinion, the T-Mobile default tone is from that piece.
Perhaps that phone was Verizon. But then that ring tone is from Tarrega (not in my opinion).